Postseason run ends in second round for Providence softball
BURBANK – It took about an inning and a half for a certain realization to sink in for the Providence High softball team.
Arguably the best run during the nine-year tenure of coach Joel Curtis came to a tough ending as visiting top-seeded Rolling Hills Prep scored seven runs in the second inning en route to a 20-1 five-inning victory in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division VII playoffs Tuesday afternoon at Olive Park.
The victory was the seventh in a row for the defending division champion Huskies (17-3-1), who advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals.
With the defeat, the Liberty League runner-up Pioneers completed their season with an 8-6 record, but also with a sense of satisfaction.
“We ran into a buzz-saw today and the girls could see the difference between the teams,” Curtis said. “They were deflated after the second inning, but they kept their heads up, got a couple of hits and kept playing until the end. This is a special group.”
Rolling Hills Prep flexed its muscles in many ways, perhaps most impressively with three home runs on the fenceless field of Olive Park.
Huskies leadoff hitter Zia Norris led the charge with a spectacular effort as the center fielder finished two for five with two homers, seven runs batted in and three runs scored.
The biggest of those blasts came early when the junior smacked an inside-the-park grand slam to give the Huskies a 6-0 lead in the second inning, which eventually extended to 7-0 on a scoring double from Isabelle Berouty.
While Rolling Hills settled for only one run in the third in part to a timely line-drive double play, the Huskies exploded in the fourth.
Rolling Hills smacked eight hits, including back-to-back homers from Norris and Charlotte Pond to take a 15-0 lead after four innings.
“It’s not my ideal situation, because I think all CIF games should have fences, especially when the skill level is a little different,” Rolling Hills Prep Coach Ben Pasco said. “But hey, we both played on the same field, so we’ll take it.”
If the power wasn’t enough to contend with, Rolling Hills’ Berouty was also a force in the circle.
The senior fanned six in five innings and retired the game’s first 10 batters before the Pioneers mounted a rally.
With one out in the fourth, Providence senior Emily Mai broke up Berouty’s perfect game with a lined single off the first base bag.
“It was our last game, so we wanted to treat it like a celebration and started to when we got the hit,” Mai said. “We’re proud of this season and we know it’s a tough loss, but we had something positive.”
Mai moved to second on a single from senior Fabiana Jimenez and scored when the ball skipped off the left fielder’s glove and into no-man’s land.
Though Berouty lost the perfect game, no-hitter and shutout within two batters, the hurler responded with an infield out and strikeout to escape the inning.
An inning later, the season officially ended for Providence, which began the playoffs with a 15-0 first-round victory at Big Pine on Thursday.
“It’s a bad score, but this game was really more about taking it all in and enjoying this playoff run,” senior Rachel Camonayan said. “We had never been this far and it’s further than we thought we’d go.”
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Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com
Twitter: @jefftsports
